Library exhibit explores gentrification
Artist zeroes in on single block in Roxbury
On Monday night, residents from Roxbury and across the City of Boston, joined together at the Roxbury Branch of the public library to discuss encroaching gentrification and the kind of development they hope to be pursued by the city and their elected officials.
Hosted by artist and neighbor Jared Katsiane whose exhibition “Live The Magic: a true story” is currently on display at the library, the discussion was attended by around 15 people including representatives from councilors Erin Murphy and Julia Mejia’s office as well as a representative from the mayor’s office and by state Rep. Chyna Tyler. Also among those participating were several housing advocates with ties to neighborhood groups or social justice organizations.
Katsiane kicked off the event by giving some background on “Live The Magic: a true story” — a series of photos, text, and music that explore themes of race, class and housing. Katsiane pulls images from real ads for a luxury condo development, the Thorndike, based clearly in Roxbury, that advertises amenities in the South End using all-white models.
“The South End of today is associated with wealth and whiteness, while Roxbury is ‘poor and Black,’” he told The Dig earlier this month. “The marketing of this particular condo development represents a common tactic: erasure of reality and history.”
He said that in order to combat such issues, “it’s not enough just to have the exhibition, you really got to talk with your neighbors. Simple as that.”
The discussion, which lasted nearly an hour, had residents discussing a myriad of topics as it relates to housing — affordability, equity and quality to name a few. Some were frustrated over the low threshold to build luxury housing in their neighborhoods — just 13% of units in developments with 10 or more units are required by the city to be affordable.
Others asked about campaign promises made by Mayor Michelle Wu, including the abolition of the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) as well as rent control. The mayor has so far made strides on introducing rent control legislation but is waiting until she hires a planning director to begin dismantling the BPDA.
Boston faces unique challenges with several universities within its borders that are exempt from property taxes and students moving into low-income neighborhoods, residents facing a dramatic spectrum of needs from homelessness to struggles paying a mortgage and entrenched bureaucracy among city agencies in control of housing.
However, most if not all the attendees Monday night agreed on one issue — that they want their voices heard when it comes to questions and objections to what’s being built in their neighborhood.
“I’m here to share my opinion and it doesn’t matter. Because there’s already an agenda set. There are already particular interests that are being uplifted. So this is just a checkmark in the process,” said one Roxbury resident, Rachel Domond.
“It’s very disempowering for people who are not politicians, who are not able to go attend all these meetings,” she said.
Rep. Tyler chimed in on the issue — echoing that one of her goals has been to empower residents with the language to know what they do and don’t want from development in their neighborhood.
“It’s like a 50/50 thing,” she said. “If you don’t build it today or tomorrow, then you may not get it again — that block may be an eyesore for many years.”
Jeysaun Gant, the mayor’s Roxbury liaison, added that he and others in the Office of Neighborhood Services have been attempting to increase outreach to those not typically in the know of new development, such as elderly residents without email or those that work constantly and aren’t directly seeking out the information.
“We’ve seen from a lot of the demonstrations, we don’t have a lot of people who are going to come out and do that on their day-to-day life and that’s really tough and hard but then the next question is, how do we engage those folks?” he said.
At the end of the event, attendees left with the advice to stay involved and make connections with others concerned about the future of Boston, and especially Roxbury. Katisance also announced that Friday, March 25 at 7 p.m., the Boston Liberation Center would be hosting the art exhibit “Breaking the Chains” to further discuss neighborhood issues.
